Rock To Rocking Rock

Last weekend I gave my garden TLC after almost 10 months. Which is very very long time and unusual for me to stay away from my garden. Well, after spending few hours there in my garden re- potting, manuring, pruning and dead heading, not only my garden looks neat, clean and reinvigorated  now but it was a soothing and therapeutic for me too. 

When I was re-potting a plant, I found a rock in soil and the very next moment I wound up all my gardening work, got the rock on my desk and began playing with my imaginations. 

Though there are lots of inspiration available on various sources on internet for rock painting but what satisfies me the most is when I paint my own imagination. I thought I will make a bird then I though a flower then peacock was in my mind but then I saw a butterfly in my garden and that's where I drew my inspiration from.  

Painted butterfly in vibrant colours and gave background a mottled effect that I learnt from my mother when I was child. Whenever I paint I always think of her :)

Then the top of the rock was looking little blank and my butterfly was lonely too. So I painted everyone's favourite frangipani flower and on the other side of the rock painted some tiny yellow flowers. 

Now it was time to bring it back in the garden and see.....
it has added charm to my garden.

So what if my dwarf Ixora has stopped blooming, I can add colours this way :)

Now can someone please give me some more rocks and pebbles. My hands are still itching to paint more...!!

Would love to hear from you. Did you like my painted rock. 

Stay tuned to know what's exciting coming next.

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DIY Owl Planter

Sometimes most of the time I get innovative ideas in my dream about my art and craft work. 

Few days ago I saw tiny clay pots kept on my kitchen window sill and the same night I saw owls made of those tiny clay pots in my dream. Next day without giving it a second thought and without any planning I just started making owl planters and viola!!! the result was awesome. See here they are..

 I even named them Peter and Paul. All my readers and Facebook page fans wanted me to share the procedure of making Peter and Paul. So here is the procedure:

• Supplies:

       Hobby ideas Shilpkar/M-seal
       Carving knife/ craft knife

       Glue

       Talcum powder

       Plastic sheet

       Clay pots (any size)

       Acrylic paint

       Paint brush
       Varnish       

• Procedure:

1. First wash the clay pots thoroughly and let it dry. Now You can apply a coat of varnish inside the pot to seal it.

2. Now prime the outside of pot with white acrylic paint and let it dry. In below image you can see Hobby Ideas Shilpkar. It contains two packets, one is resin and the other is hardener. Take equal amount of both resin and hardener and mix them well. 

3. Keep the plastic sheet on working area and dust it with talcum powder to avoid Shilpkar clay sticking to sheet. Now take a small amount of clay, put it on sheet and roll it out as shown in below image. For rolling you can use pen or pencil.

4. As I didn't have carving knife I used craft knife to give shape and cut the clay. Though the carving doesn't look neat when you use craft knife. You can use something else like toothpick, empty ball pen or anything else that can solve the purpose better. 

5. Made two carved parts (left and right) and joined them. Then I took small amount of clay, made beak of owl and pasted it on carved clay. Now gently pick up the clay and paste it on the pot.

6.  I made two different kind of owls. It was hard to make features of Peter so I went easy on making Paul and gave it simple look. When it is dried prime it too. 

7. Now the last thing is to paint it in your desired colour and let it dry. You can give a protective coat of varnish if you wish.  It's done!!! See how I am using my Peter and Paul..........

You can see the before and after of my tiny clay pots in image below. 

Some of my artwork that is exclusively mine and not inspired from any other source, you can check out on 'Exclusively By Design Decor & Disha'. 

Stay tuned!!In my next blog I will be posting about my work-space makeover. 

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DIY Ideas For This Weekend

You may want to try your hand on some easy DIY this weekend. Here is a list of newspaper crafts that I have shared earlier on my blog. Click on the respective link to know the complete procedure.

DIY Decorative Tray:

I have made different kinds of trays and baskets using newspaper and let me tell you no one believes that they are made of newspaper. If you want to have a look of them then click here to see my newspaper baskets and click here to see my newspaper tray.

• If you want to learn how to make this tray then click here.

DIY Newspaper Wind Chime:

Newspaper wind chime is what I never saw or heard about. So I gave it a try and was a big hit. Do you want to learn how to make Newspaper wind chime, then click here.

DIY Newspaper Coasters:

First I tried making simple newspaper coasters and then tried making them in different patterns and designs too. Coasters are liked by one and all. All my customers and friends are happy using and flaunting them. Click here to check out the video tutorial on how to make newspaper coasters. 

I am so sure that you will enjoy making these paper crafts. 

Wish you a creative and happy weekend!!

All images are mine and subject to copyright. Please don't use any image without my permission. Thanks!!

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Wainscoting To The Rescue!

Hand prints.....
            Scuff marks....
                         What seems like miles of hallways...
                                                                 AND Four young kids...




The only answer was wainscoting in the form of Board and Batten. I realize that this friends home was built and is owned by a high end custom home builder, but this is something that anyone can do

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DIY Newspaper Coasters

   I have been getting requests for posting video tutorial on how to make newspaper coasters. So here I am sharing the tutorial, hope you all will like it.

Enjoy the tutorial and don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel. Thank you!!

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Diary Of a Design Blogger

One who knows me more than anyone in this world, gifted me this thoughtful gift- a diary. He knows that I plan everything well in advance and for that I need a diary. Not only I write my favourite quotes and all those things that make me happy everyday but I write about my  blogging journey too. 

Though my husband's gift was very thoughtful but it's cover was so dull, that the moment I held it I wanted to change it and I did so. Now it's totally my kind of and it sure is a diary of a design blogger.

I told you on my Facebook page today morning that I will be coming up with an easy peasy DIY, I was talking about this diary makeover. Hers is how I did it:

First I covered the diary in my favourite green handmade paper.

Now I wanted something interesting on the diary cover. I have been hoarding cuttings of this elephant picture from incense stick's pack because I don't know why but I find it very intriguing. So I used decoupage technique and pasted the elephant cut out on the diary. 

• Click here to read about my first hand painted tray in which I painted the same elephant.
• Click here to see my decoupage slippers.

And added some cut outs of flowers and tree trunk from a magazine that I found lovely.

For bookmark I punched a hole in an elephant cut out and tied it with satin ribbon. Here's bookmark is ready and going pretty well with the diary.

Here is a close up of my graceful elephant.

Did you like this Diary Makeover, I totally liked the outcome. It's my kind of :)

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Tulips for Mom!

It all started with these little rascals.





I've shown you these kids before. They are the children of a custom home builder, that I do accounts receivable for and am good friends with their Mom. I love these kids and have been around since before each were born. My heart is attached to them.

I spent the summer (after the bookkeeping) doing craft and science experiments with the two oldest

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No Cost Decorating ~ Switcheroo!

I have put

much thought

in the ridiculous

amount of pillows

that I have to

put on and remove

every day when

I make the bed then

prepare it for sleeping!

I
HAD
to
make
a
change!



Yes, it looks lovely in it's presentation, but I needed to simplify my pillow life! I ending up doing a switcheroo!

As you can see, in the above picture of the master bedroom, I have 10 pillows on my bed

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DIY Lippan Work: Video Tutorial

Thank you so much dear all for appreciating my Lippan Work Wooden panels. I am overwhelmed by the response I got. So I created a video tutorial exclusively for my wonderful readers who want to try their hand on this art.

In my last post about Asus Zenfone 6 you saw how I am super impressed with ZenFone 6 and exploring its wonderful features every passing day. So this was the perfect time to test its video recording feature too. I just picked up the ZenFone 6, gathered all the supplies needed for making Lippan work wooden panels, started shooting video and without any editing published it on YouTube. It was extremely easy and quick to make a video tutorial with ZenFone 6 and the most amazing thing was publishing it on my YouTube channel right after I finished shooting it. 

I watched the video I shot, over and over again in great disbelief that how a mobile with some amazing features can save so much time. I had spent around 4-6 hrs in making video tutorials earlier and it was hassle to shoot and then edit the video.
While making video with ZenFone 6, I noticed that I can pause the video number of times whenever I want and can resume it later, it is wonderful feature specially when I am shooting DIY tutorials. Video and sound clarity is excellent.
Below is the video tutorial of Lippan work. You can check out the video and its sound quality. I found it wonderful.

Few more things that I am trying to do with ZenFone 6 is that I am creating a movie with its 'Movie Maker', using series of pictures or videos and then I can edit it.

I captured lots of pictures too, will share them in my next post with all the other good features that I am exploring in ZenFone 6

Want to see more images of my Lippan Work then click here.

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Christmas Tree Banner & Stocking

While decorating my main Christmas Tree this year, I chose to go red and natural...



Natural by adding Quail



A twig Star



And I made this cloth banner...






On a trip to Kansas City, we stopped by Nell Hill's, a fabulous decor and furniture store like no other! The prices are great too! I picked up a yard of this fabric...





Not knowing what I was going to do with it, I put it

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Upscaling Ceiling Fan Blades!

My son Charlie has figured out that I can do a lot of things and that I love doing for him.



Over Thanksgiving and the weekend, we were together...he lives in Kansas and I live in Illinois. He brought me 5 brightly painted ceiling fan blades from his old farmhouse.


The previous owners painted it this awful color probably for a childs room. Since this farmhouse has 5 bedrooms, he has

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DIY Square Wreath

I have thought for some time how much I like the look of Square Wreaths. They are different and this is one of those projects that I dragged my feet on.



1) I didn't need yet another wreath to store away when it wasn't season for it to be on display.

2) I must force myself to learn to admire from afar, or risk being called a hoarder.

3) And, how many Fall wreaths can I really find places

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DIY 3-Tier Stand

Who knew

that this pile of 

JUNK 

could turn out

to be a

fun and useful

3-tier stand!






I saw these made by Angie at Knick of Time and knew that I loved them so much, that I would try my hand at making one. Sure enough, it was an easy and fun project. If you don't want to make one, just watch for them on Knick of Time's Etsy account. Angie sells a lot of these.


I went to garage

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MacKenzie Childs Inspired Christmas Deer

Is it a gift or a curse? And it happens a lot...




I am wondering down the aisle at Hobby Lobby and see this...


It's a Christmas ornament. A harmless plastic deer head with glittered antlers. But my mind is saying...



This could be a much cooler Christmas wall hanging

 with an influence from my favorite Courtly Check

 of MacKenzie Childs!




After purchasing it,
I painted the head

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Crazy AWESOME Decor Ideas!

For years, Hubby and I have been counting collection and making the deposit for our church.






And our church has been growing



Which has caused some remodeling to happen



We also have some young and hip



people on our staff



And with that comes




Old bibles and twine!


Some Crazy AWESOME Decor Ideas that I found 



Simply by walking by their offices!



These people amaze me

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Tutorial on Making Wool Pumpkins

I haven't done a tutorial in a very long time and just made these cute little pumpkins out of an old wool sweater and thought that you would maybe want to how I made them!




First, you need to find a wool sweater. I found a pure white one at the thrift store.  I then washed it and dried it in the dryer so it would 'felt' and shrink. This gives the wool and different look and feel.

I then

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Diwali DIY Made Easy With Venue: Wall Hanging DIY

This month I will be focusing on Diwali craft and decor ideas only. In previous post you learnt how to make a Diwali Lamp. In today's tutorial you will learn how to make beautiful wall hanging using mundane objects. These hangings add charm to your walls for sure. The best part is that it's very easy to make these hangings. It took me only an hour to complete the project.

Dell's venue tab has made my work easy. I clicked all the images of this DIY with Venue tab and then I made a video using its wonderful application called 'Movie studio' in no time.

Here my movie is in progress..........

Below is the complete video tutorial on how to make wall hanging. Enjoy!!

Stay tuned for some more Diwali Decor ideas in my next post!! 

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Jazzed-Up Acorns!

Talk about 





Cute





 And 





Fun!





This all started when I visited my friend. Upon arriving, I noticed that her acorns were huge compared to mine...


That got me to thinking how fun it would be to create some cute but various ways to Jazz-Up her acorns.


First, I washed them and put them on foil, then on a cookie sheet. I baked them at 170 degrees for about 2 hours to make

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Furniture Problems and Solutions!

The furniture problems...


1) I spilled some rubbing alcohol on my vanity top while cleaning earrings


2) I have bleed though on my painted vanity


3) I sold my vanity chair at my last garage sale


The Furniture Solutions...

First of all, I didn't know that rubbing alcohol was a furniture stripper. Now I know! How did I get to be 56 and not have the happen before? I usually use the

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My Homemade Orb Chandelier!

I am in love with these orb chandeliers.  I bet you are too.

When I keep focusing in on something, I realize that I really love it and would love to have it in my home...but always I want it the cheapest way possible...if I can find the space for it.


Initially, my deep kitchen window held a table lamp. Then I made this hanging basket light. We have ceiling can lights and this light is

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